The 'sobering' meeting ahead of Kabul's fall

Kabul, Afghanistan.
(Image credit: HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP via Getty Images)

There have been plenty of tragic, gut-wrenching, and solemn moments in Afghanistan's continued unraveling, but according to Politico, one involved U.S. official cited a particular meeting last week as his 'oh, sh--' moment — or, the moment the country's collapse became a total emergency.

Early on August 12, President Biden's national security Cabinet gathered together for a pressing intelligence briefing, in which officials reportedly determined the situation in Afghanistan to be so "fluid" that the government in Kabul could fall to the Taliban "within weeks or days," Politico reports.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.